{"id":496580,"date":"2026-06-12T19:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496580\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:55:12","slug":"madfabulous-review-a-beautiful-celebration-of-welsh-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496580\/","title":{"rendered":"Madfabulous review: A beautiful celebration of Welsh history"},"content":{"rendered":"

The flamboyant Henry Paget (Callum Scott Howells) returns to his family seat in Anglesey, where he flouts Victorian values with his ostentatious taste. He soon charms his cousin Lily (Ruby Stokes) and supportive butler Gelert (Rupert Everett).<\/p>\n

A star-making turn from Callum Scott Howells has been due since his\u00a0heartbreaking\u00a0appearance\u00a0as gay tailor Colin in Russell T\u00a0Davies AIDS-crisis drama\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0A\u00a0Sin<\/a>\u00a0in 2021. Thankfully,\u00a0he has been thrust into the spotlight by actorand sometime director\u00a0Celyn Jones, for whom\u00a0Madfabulous\u00a0marks a second\u00a0stint behind the camera. Howells portrays Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey:\u00a0a\u00a0largely\u00a0forgotten\u00a0figure in Welsh queer history,\u00a0whom Jones and writer Lisa Baker have resurrected after discovering his portrait at the Paget family seat, Plas Newydd.<\/p>\n

\"Madfabulous<\/p>\n

Henry died in 1905 at the age of 29, an exuberant figure who frittered away his family fortune and left his ancestors in debt;\u00a0a largely unsympathetic\u00a0character. Yet Howells plays the Marquess with overwhelming heart, a man whose privilege allowed him to live as his authentic self in opulent fashions and in staunch denial of the strictures of conservative, upper-class society. Ruby Stokes matches the glint in Henry\u2019s eye as his cousin and wife Lily\u00a0\u2014\u00a0togetherthey\u00a0present an alternative, proto-Bloomsbury\u00a0Group\u00a0form of queer relationship. They are watched over by Jeeves-like butler Gelert, a perfectly cast\u00a0Rupert\u00a0Everett. His\u00a0telling\u00a0of the legend of\u00a0his namesake, the\u00a0Gelert\u00a0greyhound of Welsh folklore,\u00a0is the film\u2019s tenderest moment.<\/p>\n

The production is\u00a0impressively\u00a0lavish\u00a0given its\u00a0fairly low\u00a0budget, bolstered by a terrific score\u00a0from\u00a0Dan Baboulene.\u00a0The highlight of Howells\u2019\u00a0performance is his staging of the Marquess\u2019 famous \u2018butterfly dance\u2019,\u00a0borrowed from\u00a0Lo\u00efe Fuller and familiar to early-cinema aficionados in the work of Alice Guy-Blach\u00e9. Moving to music in voluminous silk robes in imitation of wings, the effect recalls the cinema of Powell and Pressburger, drawing us into Henry\u2019s unique inner world of freedom and expression. Delicately played by the entire cast,\u00a0\u2018Madfabulous\u2019\u00a0sounds about\u00a0right.<\/p>\n

Celyn Jones puts Callum Scott Howells centre-stage in this bold and beautiful celebration of Welsh history. A vital testament to queer optimism and pride even in the darkest of times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The flamboyant Henry Paget (Callum Scott Howells) returns to his family seat in Anglesey, where he flouts Victorian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-496580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}